OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Evening Star, Issue 23130, 2 December 1938, Page 7

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

TEACHER VISITS ISOLATED HOMES PERSONAL CONTACT WITH CORRESPONDENCE PUPILS Formerly on the staff of the King’s High School and now a member of the staff of the secondary. division of the Education Department’s correspondence school, Mr J. T. Moore recently had an interesting experience in making an experimental round of visits to primary and secondary pupils in Taranaki who would otherwise not see a teacher from one year’s end to another. He has been making personal contacts, supervising, and advising. ■ In the course of his tour Mr Moore had to leave the beaten track and visit isolated homes in places beyond the knowledge of the average New Zealander, and his work, besides being important, was adventurous. There were 80 pupils to be visited in Taranaki alone, and to reach many of them Mr Moore had to ride or walk over tracks or mud roads to backblock farms and pioneer homes. Remarkable results had been achieved by the correspondence school matriculation, training college entrance, and even university degree examinations had been passed by the pupils without the advantage of personal tuition. On his tour Mr Moore had become acquainted at first hand with the difficulties that many of the pupils had to overcome, and his experience would, therefore, bo of considerable value to the department. In the correspondence course much depended on the parents as. well ns on the children, and it was wonderful what ’some mothers and fathers were doing to. help their children, commented Mr Moore. He mentioned the case of a mother far from any settlement who, besides cooking for several men and looking after a family'of small children, found time to help the latter with the correspondence lessons supplied. That was typical of what parents were doing. Many of them were handicapped by the initial difficulty of not having had an advanced education themselves, but they were doing very good work. Even shorthand and typing were being taught by correspondence, said Mr Moore, in discussing some of the advanced- courses. Latterly, at the invitation of young farmers’ clubs, the department had started lessons in farm accounts, dairy science, fertilisers, farm and orchard cropping, pastures and pasture plants, soil science, farm pests and diseases, dairy husbandry, _ agricultural botany, and sheep farming. Those studies were being pursued enthusiastically by mauy club members-